Guardian of Forever
"Are you machine, or being?" :"I am both...and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending." ::— Kirk questioning the Guardian ( ) The Guardian of Forever is a construct of an unknown, ancient alien race, that apparently functions as a time portal, or gateway to other times and dimensions, located on an ancient planet where the focus of all timelines in the galaxy converge. It is apparently sentient, responding to external stimulus such as questions and actions, and can even somehow control the flow of time. It generates immense ripples in time that manifest themselves as spatial disturbances in the region around the planet where it is located. The Guardian is located among the ruins of a large, forgotten city that stretched beyond the horizon in all directions around it. Based on initial observations, the ruins appeared to be at least one million years old. :It should be noted that the Guardian claims to be on the order of at least five billion years old. Capable of speaking to those around it, the Guardian explained that it is "its own beginning and its own ending," and that, "since before your sun (Sol) burned hot in space, had awaited a question." Apparently an inert formation of quasi-metallic substance, the Guardian creates portals to other times. The Guardian was discovered by the crew of the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]] in 2267. The Guardian's power was demonstrated when ship's doctor Leonard McCoy, suffering from the hallucinations induced by a cordrazine overdose, passed through the portal and into the past, where he inadvertently altered history. Captain James T. Kirk and his first officer, Spock, followed McCoy through the Guardian, and were ultimately successful in restoring (or preserving) the timeline. ( ) In 2269, a team of historians, accompanied by Captain Kirk and Spock, used the Guardian to investigate Federation history. Their investigation included firsthand accounts of the formation of the Orion civilization and the monitoring Vulcan history of the 2230s and 2240s. While Kirk and Spock were visiting Orion, their support team was monitoring Vulcan's past, which, in doing so, inadvertently removed Spock from the proper timeline. Spock, however, was protected from the change while he was in Orion's past, and the change to the timeline went unnoticed until he and Kirk returned through the Guardian. Once the cause was determined, Spock was able to use the Guardian to return to his own childhood on Vulcan, and prevent his death during the kahs-wan ritual. ( ) Images seen through the Guardian of Forever Image:Pyramid, The city on the edge of forever.jpg|Egyptian pyramid. Image:Sailing ship firing, Guardian of Forever.jpg|A sailing ship firing. Image:Crew observes the american revolution.jpg|The American Revolution. Image:Abe Lincoln wins election.jpg|Abraham Lincoln wins the election. Image:Tricorder 1930 newspaper.jpg|1930 newspaper (recorded on Spock's tricorder) Image:The Star Dispatch.jpg|1936 newspaper from an alternate timeline (recorded on Spock's tricorder) Image:Franklin Roosevelt promoting war bonds.jpg|Franklin Roosevelt promoting war bonds. Image:Unnamed_Vulcan_Ship_circa_2237.jpg|An unnamed Vulcan starship. Background The voice of the Guardian was performed by Bart LaRue in "The City on the Edge of Forever" and by James Doohan in "Yesteryear". In the original teleplay for "The City on the Edge of Forever," the Guardians of the Time Vortex were nine-feet tall, humanoid statue-like beings. An original draft of the episode that eventually became TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise" featured a Vulcan science team researching history through the Guardian of Forever. In that story, the team accidentally caused the death of Surak, the father of modern Vulcan philosophy. The original Guardian was designed by Desilu Supervising Art Director Rolland M. Brooks, because Matt Jefferies was sick with the Flu that week. (Star Trek: The Animated Series DVDs, text commentary for "Yesteryear") Apocrypha In the novel Engines of Destiny, the Guardian appears in an alternate timeline where the Borg have conquered Earth and an alternate Guinan, having learned of the change, has gone to the Guardian's planet to ask for help, and the Guardian reveals how to restore the timeline to normal. In Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q Continuum, the Guardian is used by a younger Q when attempting to find something new, allowing him to make contact with the being known as 0 (Although the Guardian briefly tries to deny 0 access to this universe), who subsequently contacts (*), Gorgan and The One via the Guardian. It is hinted here that the Guardian was built by the race that would eventually evolve into the Q- when looking at the Guardian, the young Q comments "At least our ancestors made things"- but the veracity of this is uncertain. In the alternate future seen in the Deep Space Nine book trilogy Millennium the Guardian of Forever was key to Admiral Kathryn Janeway's Project Forever. Janeway, along with a combined Federation/Borg armada hoped to use the Guardian to go back in time and wipe out Bajor (the Federation was at war with the Bajoran Ascendancy in this timeline). However, the Grigari set off a singularity bomb, creating a black hole that destroyed the entire Federation/Borg fleet, the Grigari fleet, Janeway, and the Guardian. The timeline was later reset by Benjamin Sisko and the crew of Deep Space Nine. The alternate future presented in "Imzadi", Admiral Riker used the Guardian to travel back in time to save Deanna Troi's life from an attempt to kill her and prevent her participation in a conference. Although the future Data also attempts to travel back in time to maintain continuity, it is revealed that history had already been changed, and Riker's actions actually set it back on the right path. See also: The City on the Edge of Forever, the original screenplay published by Harlan Ellison. Category:Individuals Category:Time travel de:Wächter der Ewigkeit